Hurricane Gustav, Some New Orleans Residents Won’t Evacuate

Hurricane Gustav is on track to hit southern Louisiana by Monday evening. Residents are already being evacuated by state and local authorities. But not everyone is leaving.

At least one man — the father of my dear friend, Arthur, who left New Orleans after Katrina and moved to Boston to start his life over — refuses to leave. Arthur describes his dad as just plain stubborn. In his dad’s way of thinking, he survived Katrina so there’s point in making in a fuss over Gustav.

I just hope for Arthur’s dad’s sake, and for all of the other stubborn residents like him in New Orleans and surrounding areas, that Gustav downgrades or veers off its projected course.

Here are some links to other stories in the news about evacuating in advance of Hurricane Gustav:

BBC — Mayor of New Orleans orders evacuations and calls it the “Mother of all storms” and says it’s the “real deal”. The National weather service says Gustav is the “worst possible kind”.

Bloomberg — “New Orleans ordered residents to evacuate as Hurricane Gustav swelled into a Category 4 storm that may strike the U.S. Gulf Coast harder than Katrina did three years ago. ”

Nola.com — “Gov. Bobby Jindal laid out the state’s emergency preparedness plan this evening for the potential arrival of Hurricane Gustav, which he said could make landfall in Louisiana sometime early Tuesday.”

Earthtimes.org — “The Air Transport
Association of America (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, today provided a statement regarding evacuation procedures in advance of Hurricane Gustav:”

The Swamp — “Sen. Barack Obama Saturday evening called for residents of the Gulf Coast to ‘take the evacuation seriously, even if you have ridden out the storm before.'”